Grammy-winning singer Chaka Khan enters rehab for drug abuse

|Reuters

|Reuters

|Reuters

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Grammy-winning singer and songwriter Chaka Khan has postponed all performances for this month after checking herself into a drug addiction rehabilitation program, her representatives said in a message posted on her website.

The 63-year-old vocalist has struggled with a dependence on prescription pain medications and has "voluntarily entered the program to get healthy and stay that way," the statement said, though it did not say when or where treatment began.

The treatment was described only as "an addiction rehabilitation and aftercare program" that would require her to "postpone all dates scheduled for the month of July."

"As part of the ongoing outpatient treatment the doctors have urged her to resume recording mid-July and commence all performances beginning August 1st and onward," according to the statement posted on Sunday.

Khan, who first gained fame in the 1970s as the lead female vocalist for the funk band Rufus, launched her solo career with the 1978 smash hit "I'm Every Woman."

Her 1984 chart-topping version of the song "I Feel For You," from the hit album of the same name, was written and first recorded by Prince and is widely credited as the first R&B track to feature a rap, which was performed by Grandmaster Melle Mel.

Prince, a longtime friend and collaborator with Khan, died in late April from an accidental overdose of the powerful opioid painkiller fentanyl. He was 57.